Pickle Anything! Basic Pickle Instructions

Step 5: Let 'em Cool, Baby! Let 'em Pop!

Pull the jars out and let them cool on your clean towel.  Place jars at least 1" apart from each other to ensure they cool evenly.  Listen for the sound of the tops "popping" as the jars cool down and air compresses. That is the sound for my ears!

Comments

[CaptSteve]

Whenever canning anything, always check that the top is concave inward into the container once you have boiled and removed the jar after it has cooled down.

Then when you open the canning container, the top should still be under a vacuum. If the top has expanded outward and is no longer concave but convex, then your canning has bacteria or botulism growing inside and created gas which has expanded the top. DO NOT EAT ANYTHING canned that is from an expanded container.

[snookmz]

How long must the vegetables remain in the jars before they are 'pickled'? how long will they last in the jars, if the jars remain unopened?  And once pickled, when I opened the jar approximately how long would they last once exposed to air?

Thank you for the great instructable!

[neighborhoodfruit]

Snookmz,  in my experience, using this method the veggies are pickled almost immediately, because of the water bath canning.  As far as I know, the USDA doesn't recommend eating home canned food that's more than a year old, although some people people do.

Once you open the jar, it should keep in the fridge for a month or two, providing you use a clean fork to take the pickles out of the brine.  If the fork is dirty, you will introduce bacteria into the mix, and a scum will form on top of the brine.  When you've eaten all the pickles, you can use the brine to make "refrigerator pickles", by adding more clean veggies to the water.

[snookmz]

Great, thank you.  My first lot of pickles is in the cupboard now, fingers crossed they will be nice.  I didn't put any spices in the jar, because I just wanted to do a simple pickle and expand from there.